University of Southern California Recruitment

[ellebud]

You must explain In N Out to non SoCal people.

And Presents is a huge deal in southern California. If anyone is interested go to the USC Panhellenic site and go to photos from each house. Most have posted pictures from last year's Presents. Also, in my daughter's recruitment thread, FootballFan was kind enough to post pictures of TriDelta's Presents. That definitely gives you an idea of what Presents is like!

[DTD Alum]

Originally Posted by ellebud

You must explain In N Out to non SoCal people.

And Presents is a huge deal in southern California. If anyone is interested go to the USC Panhellenic site and go to photos from each house. Most have posted pictures from last year's Presents. Also, in my daughter's recruitment thread, FootballFan was kind enough to post pictures of TriDelta's Presents. That definitely gives you an idea of what Presents is like!

I think Presents is one of the most unique experiences at USC. The other tradition that is hard to find at other campuses is deliveries...every chapter holds their Monday Night Dinner before chapter, guys in suits, girls usually in dresses. The pledges from the respective houses (although I've heard that now many sororities use their actives until the new members are initiated to avoid hazing...a little overkill, but it is what it is) will make delivery runs to the other chapters.

Let's say I had a great date with a sorority girl, or just wanted to acknowledge an inside joke to a friend in another chapter. I'd buy her a delivery and then one of the pledges would go over during dinner and announce, "I am [insert name] from [insert chapter], and I have a delivery for [insert girl's name." Everybody claps and the girl gets her delivery. The deliveries themselves could be a dozen roses, a cheap but funny dollar store trinket or something outrageous (a pinata with her favorite candy, a stuffed animal with alcohol concealed inside to make it past the house mom and the security guard at the door, etc).

The craziest dinners were after one of our invites where it felt like each sorority would have dozens of deliveries for guys in our house (their dates). Also intense were when one of the fraternities was planning on asking a sorority to an exchange...in this case, the deliveries would number in the dozens, not to mention that every girl in the chapter would usually get a rose and that there were usually elaborate song and dance routines asking the sorority to an exchange.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by DTD Alum

Also intense were when one of the fraternities was planning on asking a sorority to an exchange...in this case, the deliveries would number in the dozens, not to mention that every girl in the chapter would usually get a rose and that there were usually elaborate song and dance routines asking the sorority to an exchange.

We had something similar - Phi Delta Theta held "Kiss and Carnation" on Bid Night to welcome each sorority pledge to the greek system. Each would get (you guessed it!) a kiss and carnation from a Phi Delt.

One year, one of our sisters had just gotten her black belt, so when they arrived, she was in the line for K&C, and the sister checking the list said, "Oh, you don't have one of the pledges, Carol." They quickly added her, and the Phi Delt who was to give her a carnation got flipped instead!

[myopicsunflower]

Originally Posted by DTD Alum

Let's say I had a great date with a sorority girl, or just wanted to acknowledge an inside joke to a friend in another chapter. I'd buy her a delivery and then one of the pledges would go over during dinner and announce, "I am [insert name] from [insert chapter], and I have a delivery for [insert girl's name." Everybody claps and the girl gets her delivery. The deliveries themselves could be a dozen roses, a cheap but funny dollar store trinket or something outrageous (a pinata with her favorite candy, a stuffed animal with alcohol concealed inside to make it past the house mom and the security guard at the door, etc).

I like this tradition!

[LatinaAlumna]

Originally Posted by DTD Alum

Let's say I had a great date with a sorority girl, or just wanted to acknowledge an inside joke to a friend in another chapter. I'd buy her a delivery and then one of the pledges would go over during dinner and announce, "I am [insert name] from [insert chapter], and I have a delivery for [insert girl's name." Everybody claps and the girl gets her delivery. The deliveries themselves could be a dozen roses, a cheap but funny dollar store trinket or something outrageous (a pinata with her favorite candy, a stuffed animal with alcohol concealed inside to make it past the house mom and the security guard at the door, etc).

The craziest dinners were after one of our invites where it felt like each sorority would have dozens of deliveries for guys in our house (their dates). Also intense were when one of the fraternities was planning on asking a sorority to an exchange...in this case, the deliveries would number in the dozens, not to mention that every girl in the chapter would usually get a rose and that there were usually elaborate song and dance routines asking the sorority to an exchange.

This sounds so fun!

[MerryGPhiB]

Originally Posted by ellebud

You must explain In N Out to non SoCal people.

And Presents is a huge deal in southern California. If anyone is interested go to the USC Panhellenic site and go to photos from each house. Most have posted pictures from last year's Presents. Also, in my daughter's recruitment thread, FootballFan was kind enough to post pictures of TriDelta's Presents. That definitely gives you an idea of what Presents is like!

San Diego State has presents as well. Due to the size of many of the new member classes over the past few years, they have had to move it from the house to a hotel. I loved having at the house, but understand it's a size issue.